Remember the time when the Nokia 9000 Communicator would stand out in the crowd as the hefty titan of the mobile handset world...when the rest of ‘em were riding the miniaturisation wave?

That was in the late nineties and if you wanted to show that you'd arrived as a business magnate, you just had to flash the ‘brick-sized' communicator and punch out a message on its massive keypad, as greedy eyes gawked at your every move. It is another matter that a shoulder massage would have been needed by the end of day!

A decade and a half later, the Finnish manufacturer has revamped the business smartphone and unveiled a new-age avatar that carries traces of its lineage and at the same time promises to deliver the goods to the modern-day executive.

Continuing the tradition

The second handset to feature Symbianˆ3 OS, the Nokia E7 has quite a few similarities with Nokia's previous flagship device, the N8. You can be sure heads will turn when you pull out the rather hefty-looking E7 from your pocket . Nokia, which went the anodised aluminium way with the N8, continues the trend with the E7. The handset manages to impress you with its solid, chunky feel that at the same time appears well-designed and classy.

Finger friendly?

Keeping the tradition of the Communicators alive, the E7 has a physical QWERTY keyboard that is revealed when you slide the screen out. In case you want to dash off a quick message just pop the screen up and type out an SMS . When in the landscape mode with the keyboard out, the screen lies tilted at an angle convenient enough to keep it on a desk and continue typing . The keyboard looks well-contoured within the space where the display slides back to nestle in. The hinge was a tad bit too stiff for our liking but we guess it contributes to the sturdiness in the long run. Nokia has tried to keep it neat and minimal with a one-button Menu access which lies in the fascia and has a built-in LED indicator. The volume rocker button is interestingly a slider and Camera, Power and Lock remain the only other subtle, physical buttons on the bezel.

User interface

On the Symbianˆ3, you get three homescreens to organise your stuff . You could have your email client, calendar and a translation app ready on one for that business meeting with your Korean clients and a homescreen with the Communities (integrated-SNS app), Paramount Pictures and Hangman for times when your boss isn't watching.

The Nokia E7 also happened to be the only one with an AMOLED display on our smartphone comparison test bench. It was also the biggest with a 4-inch capacitive touchscreen that supports multi-touch gestures. This makes the Web experience quite pleasant, however, the pinch-to-zoom options on this handset aren't as smooth as it was in the other handsets we tried out. Websites loaded pretty quickly with the 4-inch screen reproducing graphics and media with great clarity. Probably owing to the ClearBlack display that has been integrated in the E7, we could read SMSes and access menu options under bright sunlight without having to squint too hard.

Mapping and snapping!

‘Maps' on the E7 include a couple of interesting apps apart from OVI maps. You can access the Lonely Planet and TripAdvisor apps within the same menu which can be quite handy if you are looking for a place to shop at, grab a bite or shake a leg at the nearest pub while you are travelling.

Navigating along with OVI Maps itself is quite a pleasant experience on the Nokia E7. The app comes with voice guidance and has a couple of ‘Views' options including a ‘3D' one. You can also ‘Check In' at a posh restaurant or a shopping mall via OVI Maps with a long press on the map that pops up the aforementioned option along with displaying how far you are from the nearest popular landmarks.

You also have a voice recognition software Vlingo that you can use to Google SMS or call your contacts and even update your Facebook status with voice commands. With the Mobile Office app you have a cluster of productivity apps – Quickoffice, Adobe PDF and F-Secure.

The 8-meg camera that the E7 is endowed with gave us interesting results. Indoor shots came out sharp and the colours were close to original. High-definition video-recording too was quite impressive.

The handset has a non-user-replaceable battery which does away with the necessity of an accessible back panel...may be irksome for some users. The SIM card slot is a small hide-away tray located on the side panel. You also don't have the option of expanding storage memory. All you get is the 16GB in-built memory on the handset to store all your data.

And again, like with the N8, you have a OTG (On The Go) USB cable that you can use to access or stream media directly on the E7 while it's connected to a storage device. Nokia also includes an HDMI cable in the box so you can hook it up to stream your hi-def videos directly to the HD telly in your living room.

Our verdict

The E7 definitely has the design and the hardware to become a worthy modern-day avatar of the Communicator, a business-optimised handset that anyone would love pulling out and showing off.

However, it feels like a case of good hardware hamstrung by the inadequacies of the embedded software, one that doesn't live up to the hassle-free, peppy and intuitive interfaces created by Android or iOS.

Rs 29,999

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